Watched Year One and it was probably the most redundant movie watching experience of my life. The voice acting was poor. Batman had no gravitas, it sounded like the actor was reading off his dialogue sheet most of the time and he didn't bother to change his voice between Batman and Bruce Wayne. Gordon sounds bored all the time. At the beginning of the movie he's hating himself for wanting not to have a child and he sounds bored. Jesus. Selina and Holly sound like they've lived a pampered life in the Hills not on the streets as working girls. The story is virtually lifted panel for panel off the page, including the dates which are pretty useless in this and someone who knew how to make a film would have cut them. Literally there are times when there are ten seconds screen time between different dates. This type of stringent slavery to the source is stupid.

Watched Year One and it was probably the most redundant movie watching experience of my life. The voice acting was poor. Batman had no gravitas, it sounded like the actor was reading off his dialogue sheet most of the time and he didn't bother to change his voice between Batman and Bruce Wayne. Gordon sounds bored all the time. At the beginning of the movie he's hating himself for wanting not to have a child and he sounds bored. Jesus. Selina and Holly sound like they've lived a pampered life in the Hills not on the streets as working girls. The story is virtually lifted panel for panel off the page, including the dates which are pretty useless in this and someone who knew how to make a film would have cut them. Literally there are times when there are ten seconds screen time between different dates. This type of stringent slavery to the source is stupid.

If you have read the book there is ZERO reason to watch this.

My, what a positive review Did you like the original graphic novel DC ?

Watched Year One and it was probably the most redundant movie watching experience of my life. The voice acting was poor. Batman had no gravitas, it sounded like the actor was reading off his dialogue sheet most of the time and he didn't bother to change his voice between Batman and Bruce Wayne. Gordon sounds bored all the time. At the beginning of the movie he's hating himself for wanting not to have a child and he sounds bored. Jesus. Selina and Holly sound like they've lived a pampered life in the Hills not on the streets as working girls. The story is virtually lifted panel for panel off the page, including the dates which are pretty useless in this and someone who knew how to make a film would have cut them. Literally there are times when there are ten seconds screen time between different dates. This type of stringent slavery to the source is stupid.

If you have read the book there is ZERO reason to watch this.

My, what a positive review Did you like the original graphic novel DC ?

Apart from turning Gordon into an adulterer and Selina Kyle into a prostitute I thought it was pretty darn good.

"I really wish Batman: Year One had worked as an animated feature. But without the visual nuance of the comic, the film feels like nothing more than just another cheaply produced animated direct-to-video movie. The voice work stinks, too, which doesn't help. Rent this one if you're a hardcore Batman fan, but otherwise just stick with Batman Begins instead, or read (or re-read) the original Frank Miller book."

I never liked the style of the animation on this film, now with this and some other meh reviews I think I'm gonna rent this instead.

That's a fairly apathetic response from IGN. To each their own I guess.

It's not action packed but builds a nice atmosphere that's suitably noir and I can't see the issues with the animation. It's not as good as Under the Red Hood but maybe that's because so much of this was used to better affect in Batman Begins.

Still I thoroughly enjoyed it.

_____________________________

Same thing happened to me when I played Neil Armstrong in Moonshot. They found me in an alley in Burbank trying to re-enter the earth's atmosphere in an old refrigerator box.

Aww man. I'm gutted. Forked out £19 on ebay to get the Triple Play of Batman Year One and I just didn't like it very much. I'm sorry to say Directorscut is pretty right in what he says. The voice acting is apalling just so bored and monotone. McKenzie is dire as Batman / Bruce Wayne (who have exactly the same voice!). Cranston just sounds like he's falling asleep as he's saying his line. The supporting charcaters are alright, although Katee Sackhoff is wasted as Sarah Essen. I swear she was in the comic more than the three short scenes this film gives her! The whole thing feels so rush and emotionally dry. It just ploughs through scenes withouting giving any of them room to breathe or enough time to make any real impact. You don't care about any of the characters, at all. It's so stupidly shot as well, at just under an hour, this has to be the shortest of the DC Animated Movies I've seen so far. They really could have done with lengthening it out a bit. That said, there were a few cool moments. The scene where Bats crashes the mob party was awesome, but then we'd already seen that before the release. And Batman versus the SWAT team was also epic, but again most of that had already been seen in clips released before and the scene has already been played out better in Mask of the Phantasm. Still, the Catwoman short was pretty darn cool...

Aww man. I'm gutted. Forked out £19 on ebay to get the Triple Play of Batman Year One and I just didn't like it very much. I'm sorry to say Directorscut is pretty right in what he says. The voice acting is apalling just so bored and monotone. McKenzie is dire as Batman / Bruce Wayne (who have exactly the same voice!). Cranston just sounds like he's falling asleep as he's saying his line. The supporting charcaters are alright, although Katee Sackhoff is wasted as Sarah Essen. I swear she was in the comic more than the three short scenes this film gives her! The whole thing feels so rush and emotionally dry. It just ploughs through scenes withouting giving any of them room to breathe or enough time to make any real impact. You don't care about any of the characters, at all. It's so stupidly shot as well, at just under an hour, this has to be the shortest of the DC Animated Movies I've seen so far. They really could have done with lengthening it out a bit. That said, there were a few cool moments. The scene where Bats crashes the mob party was awesome, but then we'd already seen that before the release. And Batman versus the SWAT team was also epic, but again most of that had already been seen in clips released before and the scene has already been played out better in Mask of the Phantasm. Still, the Catwoman short was pretty darn cool...

Aw man... sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it mate - I know you were really loooking forward to it too, just as I am. Haven't seen it yet but I've also ordered the disc. Let's face it though, NOTHING can touch MASK OF THE PHANTASM can it? How the hell that hasn't had a nice new blu-ray release is a mystery to me.

You speak the truth, mate. Mask of the Phantasm is one of the best Batman films period. Like I said though, they were a couple of scenes that I thought were cool. But it all felt very flat and uninvolving. I remember reading that Timm said that because the comci was so cinematic already the adaptation was just straight forward and I think that might have been the films undoing... its very faithful to the source material but without any enthuasium. Perhaps if they had expanded a little more. Given scenes room to breathe. It's interesting that directorscut mentioned the dates being pointless in the film. They are. In the graphic novel they helped to convet the passage of time but here they just make it all very jarring. Whilst the comic beautifully depicted the first year of Batman through Gordon's eyes this just feels like a rushed powerpoint presentation. Funnily enough, I've read a lot of negativity towards the animation but I thought that aspect of the film was brilliant!

I've just finished watching Year One, and I have to say that I'm surprised about the negativity towards it. I thought it was brilliant. It was everything I'd expect from a Batman feature. Having said that, I haven't read the comic. Yeah the voice over work wasn't the greatest but I reckon it suits the pace of the film.

I've watched it two more times now and I've warmed to it more but still a bit let down. Interestingly, the second time I watched it, I put on the audio commentary and realised exactly what the films shortcomings were:

(WARNING! SPOLIERS FOLLOW FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE COMIC OR SEEN THE FILM)

In the audio commentary they talk about how all the comics they ususally adapt into this stand alone animated features are around 6 issues long. Anymore and it gets too messy and things have to be cut. Any less than 6 issues and they say they have to add scenes in to make them to the full 75 mins. Batman Year One was only four issues and even with the few scenes they have added / lengthened (e.g. Bruce running over rooftops to catch up with Gordon and his baby - which I liked now after hating the first time), this film is still so short, just barely an hour including the credits. I can't help but wish they had given scenes more room to breathe and had more of the quiet moments that the comic did so well.

They also talk about how they used to prefer having all the voice actors in one room recording the dialogue together (Anyone who's a big enough fan of Batman: TAS will know the show was praised for this!), but they then say it wasn't possible here but go on about how you can't tell the difference anyway. The problem is you can! With the exception of the background voices of Loeb, Flash, Falcone, etc, the voice acting is mundane at best, sometimes just horrendous. Ben McKenzie makes Bruce Wayne's monologues sound like the monotone ramblings of my high school Maths teacher. That said, in a few scenes as Batman (i.e. When crashing the leaders of Gotham's party and sharing his pain with the drug dealer) he actually seems to be enjoying himself and shows that he can do a young, menacing Bats actually really well. Perhaps he was just bored with Bruce's lines... I've read a lot of praise for the voice of Gordon but to me that was also below par...again it just feels like a bored actor reading lines off the script without any context or emotion. I know we all liked the idea of him for Batman in The Dark Knight Returns but I can't help but think Michael Ironside would have been great as Gordon in this....

Finally, the last point that the audio commentary brought to mind is when they reveal how much debate went into whether they should actually make Batman Year One into a film since it has been such an obvious influence on Tim Burton's Batman, Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Begins, with several elements being directly lifted already, did the material warrant it's own adaptation. They obviously decided yes it did but I can't help but feel that might be perhaps the film's biggest downfall. We've already seen several "adapations" of the comic, that I'm sorry to say make a better job of it than this. As cool as the idea seemed to have a direct adapation of the comic it does suffer becauseof this. I said before, Batman versus the SWAT team is epic in this film, but nowhere near as good as the Batman versues the SWAT team in mask of the Phantasm which was so obviously inspired by the same comic.

The animation however is superb and visually the film is cinematically stunning, without flaw. For that reason alone , I'm going back on what I said before and am glad I forked out extra for the Blu-Ray version. Plus now, I have two episodes of Batman: TAS on Blu-Ray. Ooooooooo...

So, overall, a more enjoyable flick than I first thought. My expectations were through the roof and couldn't possibly be met. That said, the film still falls short against the other DC Animated Movies like Under The Red Hood, Public Enemies / Apoclaypse, Wonder Woman, etc.

I really enjoyed the Catwoman short. Just like the new Catwoman #1 it was gratuitous and violent, in a cool way, but also had a nice little twist to the tale. Only thing I wasn't keeon on was Selina having short hair at the end. Her costume is from much later in her career than Year One where as Selina Kyle she's become a bit of a socialite which wouldn't fit well with a shaven head. But I can see why they did it to tie it into the feature and let's face it, I'm just being picky.

Got Year One on DVD and loved it, take on board, what all are saying and the points are very valid indeed but having read the GN, every component for me still stands to make a strong animated feature.

Yes, the voice work isn't as strong as other DC animated, unfortunatley, it's Bruce / Batman that comes off weakest, yes I dislike Gordon being portayed as someone who cheats and yes the music is very un-Batman like, but the diary exposition for me translate, the animation styling works and the depth of the story carries over well. Simple, brutal, effective, stark, cold.

Need to watch again to get a full feel for it, but very impressed indeed.

Got Year One on DVD and loved it, take on board, what all are saying and the points are very valid indeed but having read the GN, every component for me still stands to make a strong animated feature.

Yes, the voice work isn't as strong as other DC animated, unfortunatley, it's Bruce / Batman that comes off weakest, yes I dislike Gordon being portayed as someone who cheats and yes the music is very un-Batman like, but the diary exposition for me translate, the animation styling works and the depth of the story carries over well. Simple, brutal, effective, stark, cold.

Need to watch again to get a full feel for it, but very impressed indeed.

I've definitley grown to like it a lot more than first viewing but I still think it could have been much better. Interesting that you pick up on the subplot with Gordon and Sarah, I actually really liked that. It added another dimension to the character and showed that he was just a fallible, regular guy who fucked up like everyone else. It also was a nice way of how whilst remaining incorruptable in terms of taking bribes and such like the other cops, working as a police officer in Gotham did taint him in other ways. I also really like the muisc too. Different strokes...

Having recently re-watched both Public Enemies and Apocalypse, I can't help but wish that the plans for a third film weren't cancelled. It seems silly as the only reason DC Animation put a stop to it was because Apocalypse supposedly flopped. Looking at the figures online though it earned $6,059,738. That's more than All Star Superman, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, both Green Lantern animated films and Batman Year One (to date)! How is that a flop? It probably should be noted that plans for a Wonder Woman sequel and a Batgirl: Year One were also dropped after the "poor sales" of the Wonders dvd and that earned $7,321,797! And is the fourth highest grossing film of the DC Original Animated Movies to date... I honestly have no idea how they define what is or isn't a flop.

Anyways, having read most of the Superman / Batman series trades, I think that The Search for Kryptonite would have made an excellent third film in the series. It starts off with a simple idea, fed up of being caught helpless everytime some fool crosses his path with a shard of K, Supes enlists Batman's help in rounding up every last piece of Kyrponite on Earth and destroying it.Of course, the very simple plan doesn't go quite so simply. The comic is fast-paced, action packed and has plenty of those great moments that show the differences betwen bats and Supes whilst also illustrating how effective they are as a team. What does everyone else think? Would you like to see TSFK as a film, or another Superman / Batman story? Or are you glad they're not making a third film?